Atheists, We Need Your Help!

Since launching Strange Notions last week, we've been keeping close tabs on the feedback. And it's been excellent. We've heard from hundreds of people through email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, the Contact Form, and more, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

However, among the negative reactions, the most common critique was that Strange Notions doesn't feature enough atheist contributors. Atheists do have an equal platform in the comment boxes—in fact we've had more atheist commenters than Catholic commenters. But it's true, the main articles have so far been written by Catholics.

Similarly, some atheists noted the lack of atheist titles on our Recommended Books page, especially under the "Atheism" section.

We're grateful for the feedback and sensitive to both criticisms, and we want to address them. On the site's About page we outline our plan to feature atheist guest posts and interviews in the future, but in light of the feedback we've decided to ramp up the atheist posts as soon as possible. We've already connected with a handful of top atheist bloggers but we want to make sure those we choose are representative of the best modern atheism has to offer. We Catholics are not interested in refuting atheist straw men, nor in featuring the worst examples of atheism. To do that, though, we need your help.

If you're an atheist reader, we'd love your answer to these two questions:

1. What atheist would you most like to see featured at Strange Notions?

Again, we're looking for atheist writers, bloggers, and thinkers who could most persuasively argue for the atheistic worldview (or against the Catholic worldview.) When considering candidates, keep in mind our general ethos—we're not interested in snarky, virulent, or offensive writers. Any atheist we feature must treat his intellectual opponents with charity and respect, focused on positive arguments rather than personal attacks.

2. What one atheist book would you most recommend to Catholics?

We'll be adding a new section to our Recommended Books page featuring popular atheist books. These will include the titles that most atheists agree Catholics should read to better understand atheist arguments. We won't have room to list all the books you recommended so try to keep your suggestions to one or two titles.
 
We'll look forward to your responses in the comment box below, and really appreciate your input. If you have any other suggestions please send them our way through our Contact Page. Thanks!

Note: Our goal is to cultivate serious and respectful dialogue. While it's OK to disagree—even encouraged!—any snarky, offensive, or off-topic comments will be deleted. Before commenting please read the Commenting Rules and Tips. If you're having trouble commenting, read the Commenting Instructions.